Man gets 15 years in 1st slaying at federal MCC

May 27, 2009

A federal prisoner found guilty in the first homicide ever at Chicago's federal Metropolitan Correctional Center was sentenced today to 15 years in prison in the slaying.

Federal District Court Judge Amy St. Eve setenced Jason Tolen to 180 months in prison in the beating death of Jason Katz. Katz, 32, had been serving his first stint in federal custody on a gun charge when he was fatally beaten March 11, 2008, in the chapel at the Correctional Center.

Defense attorneys had been asking for seven to eight years in prison.

Tolen had been found guilty in January of voluntary manslaughter. The slaying was the first ever at the federal jail since it opened in the 1970s, officials have said. It was triggered by Katz calling Tolen a "snitch" during a packed pre-release party because Tolen had told a guard another prisoner had stolen boxer shorts from the jail laundry.

Testimony during Tolen's trial revealed he hit Katz 20 times in 15 seconds. The beating was caught on videotape, and the tape played at his trial.

Both had been serving time on weapons charges. It was the first time Katz was serving time in federal custody; Tolen, 21, already had an extensive criminal record.

Federal prosecutors had asked a jury to find Tolen guilty of second-degree murder, but the jury instead found him guilty of voluntary manslaught followig their deliberations in January.

Today, St. Eve called Tolen's actions "extremely disturbing," and told Tolen that "Mr. Katz didn't do anything to defend himself and you kept punching and punching and punching" him.

Diane Katz, Katz's mother, thanked St. Eve, but said she thought Tolen "should have gotten life" in prison.